Strategic leadership2 - Essay Example

91). This paper will look at the extent Wal-Mart’s failure or success was due to poor or excellent management or to environmental factors. In the business world, price and product are constituents of the 4Ps of marketing. The deliberate pricing of a product or service is an essential part of a process of business building that its significance cannot be over emphasized (Steger 2010, p. 53). This is because the cost of a commodity or service may make or break a business, so it should be carefully examined (Emiliani 2008, p. 71). Wal-Mart have acquired and maintained their leadership position in the sector largely due to their exclusive pricing strategy.

Wal-Mart established a distinctive pricing technique that differentiated it from its competitors and gave it a competitive advantage over rivals. Over the last decade, Wal-Mart has developed into the globe’s leading and possibly most commanding retailer with utmost sales and operating earnings of all discount retailers (Mullen & Stumpf 1992, p. 42). The organization owes its growth from regional retailer to international powerhouse chiefly to adequate and changes in management. Wal-Mart has been largely successful in most parts of the world, and this has been attributed to both proper management and environmental factors.

In areas where it has failed, for example, Europe and Asia, it has been largely due to environmental factors. Wal-Mart started with the objective of providing clients with the commodities and services they required where and when they needed them (Adair 2003, p. 51). This strategy was referred to as outside-in thinking, where the organization’s philosophy and approach put the interest of the client before the capabilities of the organization (Peng 2008, p. 49). In addition, the management of Wal-Mart under Sam Walton, employed homespun business knowledge and folksy charm with progressive supply-chain and information technology management to establish the globe’s most sufficient retail company (Walton 2009, p. 553). The organization’s management concentrated on establishing cost structures that permitted Wal-Mart to provide low daily pricing.

Wal-Mart’s management also focused on creating a more advanced and highly structured management plan to enhance and exploit the competitive advantage it was experiencing. Under the leadership of one of the chief executive officer, Lee Scott, Wal-Mart embraced environmental and social responsibility (Hill 2010, p. 31). As the organization enlarged in its variety of services and goods, for example, health clinics, groceries, financial services, fashion clothing, online prescription drugs, and music downloads, it was compelled to puts the interest of the client before the capacities of the organization (Merritt 2008, p. 63). Therefore, Wal-Mart’s management took this opportunity to utilize the large size with rapid responsiveness and speed towards customers (Sanders 1998, p. 67). Moreover, to offer a wide variety of commodities, Wal-Mart’s senior managers, Bud and Sam started promoting their individual discount store idea.

During this period, discount stores were only found in large towns (Bradley 2005, p. 53). Sam Walton argued that if the prices were favourable, Wal-Mart’s discount stores could be of tremendous help for clients in